Hacks and Patcheshttp://personal-view.com/talks/categories/hacks/feed.rss
Mon, 19 Nov 18 15:08:40 -0700Hacks and Patchesen-CAGH5 - impossible to unlock VLOG?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/20700/gh5-impossible-to-unlock-vlog
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 01:26:43 -0600GHuser20700@/talks/discussionsI remember the GH2 and Ptool hacks back in the day. With all the great features built into modern cameras like the GH5 there is less of a need for hacks, but it is curious that no one has hacked the GH5 to enable VLOG. Is that because it is impossible to enable VLOG using a firmware hack, or because no one has sufficient interest in creating a hack?
]]>canon eos m vs panasonic gh2 vloghttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/20368/canon-eos-m-vs-panasonic-gh2-vlog
Sun, 02 Sep 2018 04:11:40 -0600disease820368@/talks/discussionsI know its rough and essentially me just whining about cameras. But I was interested in the results and you might be to:

]]>A little bit confused "gh2 hacks"http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/20320/a-little-bit-confused-gh2-hacks
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 09:58:26 -0600disease820320@/talks/discussionsHi there I wanted to try out the driftwood hack and I am totally confused. I installed what should be the 176mb version and the footage looks so bad its worse than before the hack. It has terrible aliasing everywhere and looks much more compressed than default. I then looked to try and download it again but after looking through all the pages and hacks I am totally confused.

What is the quantum x patch? Is that the same?

I just want the highest possible quality but also I need it to be stable as I intend to shoot some b roll for my documentary with it. I also wanted to have the audio patch on there and I tried to add the mjpeg one to. I blended the different patches with ptool on my macbook (you have to press CMD instead of alt).
I thought maybe the patches were somehow conflicting with eachother but I checked in ptool and it seemed not.

Am I missing something obvious?

I have attached a clip from my apparently driftwood hacked gh2, as you can see it looks very compressed with really back aliasing and mud.

As numerous GH2 owners have discovered, Vitaliy's recent updates to PTool have enabled the newly hacked GH2 to sustain remarkably high bitrates in MJPEG HD mode. What's even more impressive is that the GH2 maintains error-free recording stability at bitrates significantly exceeding those that can be used reliably on the GH1. And where the GH1 struggled to produce FHD-size videos in MJPEG mode, the GH2 can be readily patched to record in any MJPEG frame size, all the way up to 1920x1080p.

The MJPEG encoder's most valuable asset has always been its ability to record each video frame as a JPEG-encoded key frame. This enables it to track high-speed action at 30fps without any of the smeared motion artifacts that plague low-bitrate AVCHD videos. To produce high-quality, detailed key frames at 1080p, however, an Intra-frame encoder must work at higher average bitrates than the GH1 was able to sustain. With PTool's support of the GH2, it is now possible to use MJPEG HD mode to produce reliable 1080p videos at an average bitrate of 100Mbps in sharply-focused, highly-detailed scenes.

The MJPEG encoder also excels in difficult low-light conditions where the AVCHD encoder cuts down its bitrate to minimum quality levels. On the GH1, MJPEG HD mode could be relied on to produce bitrates over 24Mbps even in dimly-lit scenes. With patch settings optimized for consistent bitrate production, the GH2 can maintain high bitrates of up to 100Mbps across the entire exposure range, producing high-quality images under any and all illumination levels. Combined with the GH2's low-noise image sensor, MJPEG HD mode can render clean, gradable images in conditions that the GH1 would have found hopelessly underexposed.

MJPEG image quality with exposure bracketing

Below are 100% crops of two series of four bracketed exposures I took in MJPEG HD mode, patched to 1920x1080 resolution. For each shot, I set up the GH2 on a tripod with a fixed aperture at ISO160, and varied the shutter speed from 1/60 to 1/500 second, producing videos bracketed at one-stop exposure steps. Frame grabs were then composited in Photoshop and saved at maximum JPEG image quality. These scenes were selected as typical outdoor subjects shot in natural lighting, as opposed to shots of extremely detailed foliage. The GH2 exhibited no reliability issues whatsoever, and recorded all videos at impressively consistent bitrates of around 90Mbps.

iPad compatible MJPEG VGA video mode

In addition to MJPEG HD mode, recent versions of PTool have provided patches for adjusting the frame size and image quality of MJPEG VGA mode as well. Unlike the HD 16:9 aspect ratio of HD mode, VGA video mode records with an SD aspect ratio of 4:3. I've optimized VGA mode to produce 960x720 videos at consistent average bitrates of about 30Mbps. These videos are compatible with the maximum-quality download specifications of the Apple iPad, with its 1024x768 screen resolution.

GH2 Patch Considerations

Patches for the GH2 are currently in active development by numerous testers, and Vitaliy has updated PTool several times with exciting new features. The patches in the downloadable PTool INI settings file below have been systematically tested using PTool version 3.61d and have produced no reliability issues to date. This patch is designed and tested only for the fastest Class 10 SDHC cards currently available.

Additional points of interest:

* The 100Mbps GH2 Low Light MJPEG 1080p Patch is compatible with all GH2 cameras, and is switchable between NTSC and PAL modes.

* I recommend using the camera to format your SD card at the start of each shoot, to guard against SD card memory fragmentation.

* Peak bitrates are obtained only with sharply-focused, highly-detailed subject matter. Average scenes will produce average bitrates.

* High bitrate MJPEG videos may not play back reliably in-camera or on low-powered computers.

* If shutter speed is set longer than the frame rate (e.g. slower than 1/30 at 30p), low-quality video files may be produced.

*** WARNING ***

The 100Mbps GH2 Low Light MJPEG 1080p Patch will not work properly with previous versions of PTool. My thanks once again go to Vitaliy Kiselev, for his pioneering work on PTool, and to cbrandin for his invaluable Stream Parser tool.

The best way to insure that you have the latest PTool release is to download it directly from the following link:

These zipped INI files can be used to apply complete patch settings to firmware loaded into PTool. To use, unzip the INI file into the same folder as the PTool application. Launch PTool and load the firmware for GH2 v1.0. The settings contained in the INI file will automatically be installed in the "C" button at the bottom of the PTool main window.

Note that with the following PTool Settings files, you may at any time re-install the original Panasonic GH2 v1.0 firmware into the camera. You may also copy each type of patched or original firmware to separate SD cards, and use them to quickly switch between patches as often as you like. ]]>Does the hack still work after latest firmware update? GH2?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/20248/does-the-hack-still-work-after-latest-firmware-update-gh2
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 05:34:15 -0600disease820248@/talks/discussionsI tried applying the hack but consistently get the same error:
Very recent firmware change:
2018/07/25
Has it knocked ptool out?
I will try an older firmware from somewhere.
Pretty sure I have the latest Ptool?
3.66d?
]]>GH2 new firmware for "battery compatibility"?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/20153/gh2-new-firmware-for-battery-compatibility
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 12:46:09 -0600Greg_E20153@/talks/discussionsAnyone looked at the newest firmware for the GH2? Says it fixes a battery compatibility issue but I'm wondering if it breaks our current hacks.

And yes I am still using GH2's for things, don't really need anything "better" right now but would like to get the camera so that it might show the battery level with third party batteries (or possibly even the new Panasonic batteries are a problem???).

]]>GH5 - possible hack to record RAW?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19954/gh5-possible-hack-to-record-raw
Sat, 23 Jun 2018 05:20:19 -0600bootstrap1019954@/talks/discussionsdoes anyone know of a hack that could possibly make the GH5S record internally in RAW? or is it that the processor will just never be powerful enough? or for some other reason.
i ask in part because the new kinefinity terra 4K (http://www.kinefinity.com/terra/?lang=en) is reputed to use the same sensor as the GH5S and the Terra can record in RAW.
]]>Recommend GH2 patch with working HDMI outhttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19583/recommend-gh2-patch-with-working-hdmi-out
Sat, 28 Apr 2018 04:22:15 -0600radikalfilm19583@/talks/discussionsGuys. I currently have one of the patches on the GH2 (don't remember which one, they look the same to me) which doesn't allow for Live HDMI out at all, either recording or previewing.
I was incredulous when I first discovered it but since I had to shoot the next day I left it as is and shot without external monitoring.

This time around I want to capture the HDMI output to a recorder (1080i50 on Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle 2), so I need to improve on the situation. I would like to also record on the SD card for backup, though I don't care much for the bitrate.

Should I revert to the Panasonic firmware? I seem to remember there are pulldown issues with that firmware (but HBR, which I will be shooting, is good maybe?).
Is there a recommended patch I should load which gives solid HDMI out AND SD card recording?

]]>Hacked and Unhacked Photo Comparisonhttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19669/hacked-and-unhacked-photo-comparison
Tue, 08 May 2018 21:40:44 -0600Watership19669@/talks/discussionsDoing a photo comparison with a hacked GH2, and then formatting the SD and and then taking pictures with the same GH2 but this time unhacked

Beer:

1. Helios 44-2, No hack.

2. Helios 44-2, FlowMotion v2.02

3 Minolta 28mm, Driftwood Quantum

4 Minolta 28mm, FLowMotion v2.02

5 Helios 44-2, FlowMotion v2.02

Windowed trees:

6 Minolta 28 mm, No Hack.

7 Helios 44-2, No Hack. -

8 Minolta 28mm, Apefos THE END

Dog shots:

9 Helios 44-2, No Hack.

10 Minolta 28, No Hack

11 Helios 44-2, Apefos THE END (flash)

12 Minolta 28mm, No Hack (out of focus)

Patio umbrella:

13 Helios 44-2, No Hack

14 Minolta 28 mm, No Hack

15. Minolta 28mm, Apefos THE END.

I'm having trouble seeing that much of a significant difference, though the lines from the paneling on the side of my house are clearly more pronounced when I used FlowMotion as opposed to the unhacked version.

THE END seems to restore a lot of the color, but not much else.

Was there something I was supposed to instantly recognize in the images that were hacked? Still really good quality, but I'm unsure if I actually used them correctly. After successfully installing the hack to my camera via SD, it gave me that notorious message, and obviously I continued with the installation, and waited roughly 30 seconds to a minute, as everyone says. I know it must have worked because my camera straight up froze several times while trying to shoot.

]]>Recording clean pre-processed HDMI image or USB, ambarella chipset based cameras?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19441/recording-clean-pre-processed-hdmi-image-or-usb-ambarella-chipset-based-cameras
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:54:41 -0600mei19441@/talks/discussionsI'm interested in recording clean HDMI from ambarella chipset based cameras (many), pre processing for compression. Is it possible or has anybody done a mod with the development tools out there?

Such a mod can have a neutral picture with 10+ bits and 4:2:2 maybe.

A similar mod, would be to output raw video frames to a flash drive via USB (3).

]]>Australian Panasonic G6 - Can anybody upload a ROM-Dump?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19322/australian-panasonic-g6-can-anybody-upload-a-rom-dump-
Sat, 31 Mar 2018 05:25:14 -0600Scyte19322@/talks/discussionsHey guys,
can anybody who ownes a australian G6 (PAL without 30min Limit) upload a G6U.TXT with the contents of the USER-ROM?

I own the european version:
If a change the Version between european versions
The ROM-Dump changes at position H017/Ld( the last 2 bytes changes)

eg,e -> 02
ef -> 08
eb -> 09
ec -> 11

the other number can be found in the service manual.

May be it is posible to remove any recording limit with such a ROM-hack.

Can anybody upload a australian ROM-DUMP?
Has anybody tested to change the region code over ROM?
The service manual discribes 2 MainPCBs: one with suffix A(Rest of the World), the other with suffix B(Europe). Does anybody know if these are different or have only other ROM entries?

Yours Scyte

]]>Checking in on GH2 1080p HDMI Outputhttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/19130/checking-in-on-gh2-1080p-hdmi-output
Mon, 05 Mar 2018 15:02:52 -0700genepensiero19130@/talks/discussionsI've spent the better part of today reading old posts and hunting around the internet.

Any hacks that led to a progressive output from the HDMI port? 1080p or 720p, rather than 1080i.

]]>GH2 RELOADEDhttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/15127/gh2-reloaded
Thu, 26 May 2016 11:42:15 -0600frullaccia15127@/talks/discussionsInto the Full HD world, our GH2 camera and Panasonic processor have still much to give us. This new hack is based upon my personal Gop 1 development. But almost every single parameter has been adapted to match some original and extreme choices. I made all possible to get a neat and rich picture.
It has been a step-by-step hard work. In particular the hbr mode was very difficult to manage. To tell the truth, I didn't touch the 1080i60 and 720p60 modes, which are taken by Apefos' The End patch.
I hope that somebody will find useful and beautiful our new used GH2.
]]>GH2 720 50P Intra patch?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/15430/gh2-720-50p-intra-patch
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 11:20:47 -0600xavi_AL15430@/talks/discussionsSorry for my English
It is possible for the Panasonic GH2 patch 720 50P intra ?

Mantra is the only existing all-intra hack for Panasonic GH2, including a stabilized 720p50 version.
Mantra is for Pal system.

IMPORTANT! All-intra 720p50 mode has limitations. Using this, the camera sensor needs much more light than before. When shooting in low light or shooting in dark areas, the camera could freeze. Furthermore: choose the right iso settings.
When shooting outdoor (daylight) a 720p50 GOP1 is fine.
For low lights and indoor shootings use Zo, the GOP2 patch version.

I searched the forum and the whole internet for this problem, but didn't find any post or anyone having this problem, so I started a new topic for this and hope I didn't search for the wrong keywords... ;).
I am using the GH2 for video shooting very short time and all I am doing these days is not really working well. I know that it should be easy to use firmware patches but for me it turns out not to be that easy as it maybe should.
I used a few patches and tested around with each for quite a bit and tried to check wether the patch is working fine or if there are occuring errors while recording. I would need a very stable patch since I always need to record longer footage... not just 15min, but most of the time 2-3 hours.
I found that SD card speed is a thing which is why I bought the SanDisk Extreme Pro with 95MB/sec.
Used the Sanity 4.1 Patch which should be stable, but the cam stops recording video after some time (I couldn't specify when it does) without any error. It just stops recording and doesn't write the file completely to the card.
Used the Quantum X SpanMyBitchUp and I get the same error. Also tried some other patches, some came up with errors that the card is not fast enough, some didn't... most of them didn't...

Since I can't tell why that is and I don't know how to find out why the cam stops recording I am not sure what to do next. Fact is that the patches really do enhance the quality which I would not love to miss ;).

Can anyone help me with this?
All the best from Hamburg,
Thomas

]]>Costum Cropmarks / Framelines for Sony Alphahttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/17626/costum-cropmarks-framelines-for-sony-alpha
Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:08:49 -0600jeffcostello17626@/talks/discussionsSony alpha cameras always take images in aspect ratio 3:2 but you can choose a 16:9 overlay if you prefer to take images in 16:9. As the camera always saves the images in 3:2 you need to crop the images later in photoshop to 16:9. Unfortunately 16:9 is the only alternativ format you can choose and I would love the possibility to see black overlays in any aspect ratio i want.

For canon cameras there is a reverse engineered software called „Magic Lantern“. One option within this software is the possibility to create your own cropmarks / overlays. You just create a photoshop file with two layers. A white background layer and a second layer with whatever shape you want. When you copy this photoshop file on the SD Card of your camera you can load it onto your camera. The second layer with your shape will then bye shown as an overlay. It´s meant to use it for different aspect ratios but you can also draw a flower and let it appear on your camera liveview.

For Sony cameras there isn´t such thing but there seems to be a way to build android apps and install them on the camera to create new functions.
My question is:

Is it possible to built an app for sony cameras that lets you create costum overlays that show in camera live view?

Best, David

]]>Panasonic G3 Stable Settingshttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/4913/panasonic-g3-stable-settings
Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:59:29 -0600luisnando4913@/talks/discussionsI managed to fix the writing error on the previous patches messing with the buffer size. Actually I put 170M bitrate and the small shootings I made really passed through with no errors! Since I am still learning about those settings, I would like to ask someone to analyze the data and see if I really got it. Annexed goes my patch.

I based my settings over Driftwood cluster v6 settings.

]]>GH1: 75Mbps Peak Reliability Setting - V2 updatehttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/334/gh1-75mbps-peak-reliability-setting-v2-update
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:00:44 -0600LPowell334@/talks/discussionsAt the time the original 75Mbps GH1 Peak Performance Patch was released, I along with many other patch developers had reluctantly concluded that a stable Native 24/25p video mode could not be perfected for the GH1. It was not long after, however, that I discovered new stabilization techniques that led to the development of the Blackout-Powell Native 24p Patch and the Max Latitude Native 24/25p Patch. More recently, with Vitaliy's release of PTool 3.56d, all previously unhackable versions of the GH1 have been liberated for use with freshly upgraded versions of my patches.

The primary focus of recent patches has been the optimization of 1080p Native 24/25p FHD video modes. In order to achieve bitrates as high as 100Mbps, however, it was necessary to restrict the 720p SH video modes to 25p in PAL mode and 30p in NTSC mode. For 720p SH mode recorded at the standard 50/60p frame rates, the 75Mbps peak bitrate of the Peak Performance Patch remains the highest I've achieved. With the aid of new stabilization techniques provided in PTool 3.56d, I have been able to significantly improve the patch's high-bitrate reliability as well. Based on the comparison tests I've conducted, the stability of the updated 75Mbps GH1 Peak Reliability Patch is second only to that of my Reliable In-Camera Playback Patch.

Here are short descriptions of the updated properties of this patch:

75Mbps AVCHD 1280x720 SH mode @ 50/60 fpsWhile the unhacked 720p50/60 SH video mode offers high frame rates, its low 17Mbps maximum bitrate and long-GOP frame compression hamper its ability to track fast-moving subjects. In 60p mode, this patch reduces the length of each GOP to 20 frames, producing 3 key-frames per second. In addition, the codec's 75Mbps peak bitrate allows it to encode a large amount of image detail into each key-frame. Compression efficiency remains high enough, however, to limit average bitrates to less than 50Mbps.

75Mbps AVCHD Interlaced 1920x1080 FHD mode @ 24/25 fpsFor those who do not require Native 24/25p video files, this mode produces the highest quality images available from the GH1 in both 24p and 25p interlaced FHD video modes. Turbo-charged with a 75Mbps maximum bitrate, the codec's ability to track moving objects without producing mud is significantly improved. As with the 75Mbps SH patch, the FHD encoder maintains an average bitrate no higher than 50Mbps.

75Mbps MJPEG 4:2:2 Color 1536x864 HD mode @ 30 fpsThe MJPEG Intra-frame codec's unique advantage is its ability to produce highly detailed images in 4:2:2 color depth. This is especially valuable in green-screen rotoscoping, where you want to use the highest chroma resolution available. To maximize its usefulness, I've increased the MJPEG frame size to 1536x864 pixels, while maintaining the camera's normal16:9 aspect ratio. This frame size is exactly 20% taller than SH 720p mode, and 80% as tall as FHD 1080p mode. While it is non-standard, the intermediate frame size allows you to either flexibly crop the edited frame down to 720p, or upsample it to 1080p with minimal loss of resolution. And at 75Mbps max, the MJPEG encoder maintains consistently higher bitrates than the AVCHD encoder, particularly in dimly lit situations.

Overall Patch ConsiderationsWhile no GH1 patch can claim to be absolutely bulletproof, I have tested these settings in a wide variety of extreme circumstances. However, with bitrates as high as 75Mbps, the safety margin is inherently narrower than my Reliable In-Camera Playback Patch. This patch is designed and tested only for the fastest Class 10 SDHC cards currently available.

Additional points of interest:

* The 75Mbps Peak Reliability Patch is compatible with all hackable GH1 cameras, and is switchable between NTSC and PAL modes.

* I recommend using the camera to format your SD at the start of each shoot, to guard against SD card memory fragmentation.

* Peak bitrates are obtained only with well-lit, sharply-focused, highly-detailed subject matter. Average scenes will produce average bitrates.

* High bitrate AVCHD videos may not play back reliably in-camera. The MJPEG videos produced by this patch will not be playable in-camera.

* If shutter speed is set longer than the frame rate (e.g. slower than 1/60 at 60p), low-quality video files may be produced.

* AVCHD 4GB file-spanning for long video takes may not work reliably at high bitrates. For reliable recording of takes longer than about 12 minutes, I recommend selecting the "H" video mode instead of "SH". This will produce average bitrates of about 28Mbps in 720p50/60 modes.

* While AVCHD bitrates may drop to very low levels in extremely dark situations, this patch should continue to record even in total darkness.

*** WARNING ***

The 75Mbps Peak Reliability Patch will not work properly with previous versions of PTool. My thanks once again go to Vitaliy Kiselev, for his pioneering work on PTool, and to cbrandin for his invaluable Stream Parser tool.

The best way to insure that you have the latest PTool release is to download it directly from the following link:

This zipped INI file can be used to apply complete patch settings to firmware loaded into PTool 3.56d. To use, unzip the INI file into the same folder as the PTool application. Launch PTool and load the firmware for GH1 v1.32. The settings contained in the INI file will automatically be installed in the "H" button at the bottom of the PTool main window.

Note that with the following PTool Settings File, you may at any time re-install the original Panasonic GH1 v1.32 firmware into the camera. You may also copy each type of patched or original firmware to separate SD cards, and use them to quickly switch between patches as often as you like. ]]>G85 hack possibility?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/17162/g85-hack-possibility
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 06:25:22 -0600Ashley_James17162@/talks/discussionsAny chance that might happen? Thats a great camera with lots of users and it would be so awesome if someone would start working toward a hack! I have so many ideas how to improve this baby. Not only bitrates\framerates, but manual focusing as well (which would solved huge pia with panasonic autofocus). I would gladly donate money for such a project and participate as a tester and ideas generator.
]]>GH2 Driftwood Cluster v6 Issue: CANNOT RECORD. FILE NUMBER EXCEED LIMIThttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3910/gh2-driftwood-cluster-v6-issue-cannot-record.-file-number-exceed-limit
Sun, 15 Jul 2012 12:30:10 -0600quadrabay3910@/talks/discussionsHi Folks,

I'm extremely sorry to be reporting any negative to this AMAZING hack/setting, but I went out on a FREE (Thankfully) Band Shoot last night with my GH2 under the Cluster v6 DrewNet patch. I'm using a SanDisk Ultra 64gb card (30 Mbit/sec) and I set the GH2 to the Lower of the two settings both for disc space and extra stability. With these settings I'm getting 2 Hours and 55 Mins on the card with a 50 Mbit/Sec Data Rate (equivalent to 100ish...Yay!)

After the first set I shut the camera down, and when I re-powered on for the second set (with still an Hour and 50 mins left on the card) it gives me this VERY unpleasant response when I hit the record button...

CANNOT RECORD.
FILE NUMBER EXCEED LIMIT

I gave it my best "college try" with powering down, card in and out, in a desperate effort to get it to record again, but alas it just laughed at me. (and a hacked GH2 has a very unpleasant laugh, let me tell you)

I'm DESPERATELY hoping there's something silly I'm doing, or a work-around that will fix this, as the v6 Cluster was SPANNING LIKE A CHAMP! I've tested it out to almost THREE HOURS more than once and it's doing it. But I've never shut down then tried to resume as I did last night.

If the only solution is to bend over on the price of an Extreme Card, I would gladly do that if it WILL solve this, but I get the feeling it won't and I'll be stuck paying WAY too much for a card that will go for $50 at some point down the road. (That always P's me off...the Ultra 64gb was $45 and it was working FINE other than this new glitch...and I'm not sure it's the card necessarily...I'm under the 60M point...)

Anyhow, I again apologize for reporting less than great news, and I'm truly hoping someone has a solution out there in the land of innovative photographic genius!

Take Care,
Erik

PS: With an old Nikkor 50mm f 1.4 lens on the GH2, and in a DARK restaurant - it was like I had a LIGHTING CREW on the band...UNBELIEVABLY nice!

]]>GH2 stopped working at the middle of hackinghttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/16652/gh2-stopped-working-at-the-middle-of-hacking
Tue, 28 Mar 2017 11:15:53 -0600dssob16652@/talks/discussionsHello, I know.. this is bad. My battery just died when my camera was in hacking process. So I charded it up, pluged it back. My GH2 stopped working, just black screen, no menu, not able to shoot any more, what to do!?

GH2 Died during update of firmware...

BTW.. camera turns on but only I can see black screen...

Appreciate any help,

Thank you,

Robert.

]]>Olympus em5 ii hack or firmware update for improved video quality?http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/15852/olympus-em5-ii-hack-or-firmware-update-for-improved-video-quality
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 00:17:37 -0600bokehman6415852@/talks/discussionsI am looking to buy my first real video camera and liked the look of the em5ii. especially because of that amazing stabilization. Unfortunately when I looked at some sample video it looked pretty bad. Is it possible a firmware update or a hack like the one on the gh2 could improve the quality of this otherwise great camera?
]]>Two years worth of hacked Panasonic GH2 shooting - my conclusions...http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/9181/two-years-worth-of-hacked-panasonic-gh2-shooting-my-conclusions...
Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:50:36 -0700cblok9181@/talks/discussionsLet me introduce myself, I'm Christiaan Blok. I'm a shooter and director from Sydney, Australia. For two years I've been using a hacked GH2 for my professional work. I've shot interviews, events, short films, corporate, training and commercial video. The GH2 has followed me down mines, up arctic mountains, onto race tracks, across beaches etc.. etc.. You get the idea... I've used it a lot! :-) So, as a little thank you to the hard working people behind the hacking scene I thought I'd post my experiences and conclusions after two years of testing and shooting.

THE RIG:

PAL GH2. Shooting a mix of HBR & 24p. Shooting people, settings are generally SMOOTH -2 contrast, -2 sharpness, 0 Saturation & -2 NR. If no grading is going to happen or I'm shooting products I might bump up the sharpness & contrast a bit. I used NOSTALGIC for a while but found it added too much warmth to the image & highlights went funny. SMOOTH has nice roll-offs and good skin tones.

32GB Sandisk Class 10 Extreme HD Video 30MB/s SD cards for reliability. 2 of these make sure I have more than enough space for a day of shooting.

Tamron 18-50mm f/2.8 - a solid workhorse lens. Fully open and wide, this lens is a bit soft but it gets better around the 24mm mark onwards, stopped down a little. The short focus throw makes focusing a little tricky. Not knowing my exact f/stop is a bit annoying. My Novoflex adapter had issues connecting so I use a cheapo ebay adapter with iris control. This is the lens I use when I don't have time to use primes.

50mm f/1.8 Nikon E-Series - the lens I used before I got the Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95. A great interview & portrait lens. Very forgiving on facial features. Dirt cheap. Here's a shoot using this lens and the Sanity hack: http://www.cblok.com.au/portfolio/promotional-video/

100mm f/2.8 Nikon E-Series. A bit soft but it gets me out of trouble when I need some more zoom.

Custom Gini Rig: 2 x arm mounts, a follow focus and 1 x handle. The follow focus on this item is very, very good - BUT HUGE! I attach handles & a shoulder mount when I need it.

Zoom H4N recorder for audio

LN2MIC-ZMGH-MON cable for syncing audio from H4N to GH2 & monitoring. Set the headphone output of the H4N to 64, the input level on the GH2 to level 2 AND make sure you've installed the Pasadena Pulse Audio v2 beta patch which gives increased flexibility and quality with audio levels and recording.

Good headphones to monitor - I use the Sennheiser HD280 pro

Carbon Miller DS20 Solo. A solid, light, beautifully smooth tripod.

Small HD DP6 monitor for focus - the colour is always a bit off though.

THE HACKS:

For me to use a hack it must be ROCK STABLE. If it fails unexpectedly I never use it again. For this reason I only use:

Sanity 5 with Pasadena Pulse Audio v2 beta

Flowmotion 2.02 with Pasadena Pulse Audio v2 beta.

Sanity is my workhorse - super long record times, good quality, very reliable. Anything that is time limited or I've only got 1 x shot at, Sanity is used.

Flowmotion is if I want to push quality higher eg: on a short film or larger production with more time to set up.

THE TESTS:

Driftwood Seaquake: My first hacked shoot was with Driftwood's SeaQuake 24p. File sizes were huge, recording time was limited to 4 mins & my editor complained about the files being tricky to process due to their off the charts bitrates. My editor also mentioned that grading was tricky - the image seemed to fall apart easily. Visually, the results were outstanding, however the usability of this hack was it's limiting factor. Here's the shoot, we used the 25mm Voigtlander f/0.95 lens & a single 2K:

Driftwood Quantum x v4b Orion CBR (HBR): I used this hack for a while on corporate shoots. For the shoots I was doing (interviews), the large file sizes seemed unnecessary. This hack failed on me a few times with grass and trees so it was scrapped.

All of the above hacks failed on me on HBR, generally on grass and trees.

Sanity 5 with Pasadena Pulse Audio v2 Beta:

This hack has generally been rock solid. The only times it has failed have been situations which the creator had already warned of. That is:

Shooting EX-Tele. Often it works, however times where there is a lot of movement it may fail. For example, I was shooting off a boat using EX-Tele. The mix of Tele-EX & lots of moving water caused constant fails.

Shooting using very high ISO. Generally I stick between 160-1600 ISO. Over 2000 ISO is gets a big dodgy. The night sequences of the shoot below caused constant fails due to high movement & high ISO - we wanted it grainy though. We used the Voigtlander 25mm 0.95 & LED lights.

When I want more information in the high and low-lights, more room for grading & finer grain I use this patch. Generally pretty stable, I like how it handles low-light and my editor mentioned that grading was much better. Here's a test we shot that had TONNES of highlights which generally held together:

So that's my experience and over-all workflow with this camera. Its been a great little camera, but I do often miss proper ENG style ergonomics - not to mention, built in ND filters! If anyone has any questions about what I mentioned, I'll try and answer them in batches.

Cheers.

]]>Hi, New member wanting advice on GH1 pleasehttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/16159/hi-new-member-wanting-advice-on-gh1-please
Sat, 10 Dec 2016 14:54:48 -0700photographer300016159@/talks/discussionsHi all, I'm new to this forum and must say you guys do one great job with the time you put in with the hacks and patches.
There is so much info my head is going to explode so it's better asking you guys than looking through all the posts.
I know it's 2016 but I'm just starting out and I have a GH1 and wanting to know what version of Ptools should I use and what patch/patches do I need but must be stable??
Thanks in advance.
]]>GH2 - 2.5fps AVCHD 24h Timebuster/TimeHBusteR 2.0 settings - The day is not over!http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/2135/gh2-2.5fps-avchd-24h-timebustertimehbuster-2.0-settings-the-day-is-not-over
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:53:20 -0700duartix2135@/talks/discussionsTimelapses can be amazing, beautiful, strange, provocative. And FUN!

The day I discovered the GH2 could do 2fps I got so excited, I loaded up a full battery, put the camera on the balcony and aimed it at the shopping mall door. I got over 3+1/2h of Cinema 24p footage (@2fps) and after speeding it up 15x (to 300fps) in VirtualDub I almost couldn't believe my luck. This is what I got and I have yet to grade it properly:

Since that event, I wondered about the best way to patch up the camera to capture them. MJPEG was the obvious candidate. It's a Full Intra codec and it can be setup to capture just 2fps. That means absolutely no wasted frames unlike AVCHD, so MJPEG must be great, but there was a caveat: even with stock settings there was a capture time limit that was well below AVCHD. How is that possible since it's only capturing 2fps, the bitrates have got to be frugal? Well, it happens that there is a 2GB filesize limit within MJPEG so even after taking Driftwoods Quantum 100-50's MJPEG settings and cutting the quality to take half the bitrate, you will end with less than one hour of footage. Compare that to AVCHD and you see what got me started.

At the same time these tests were taking place, I fought a lot with the stock settings trying to make a patch that used GOP 13 and yes, that's the frequency at which you see major block changes when you set the shutter speed to 1/2s. This GOP13 would insure excellent quality as it makes the result Full Intra once you trash the needed frames. But the frames and limits and buffers and modes were giving me all kinds of speed messages Hell. By that time I also discovered that the null B frames that encoded no changes at 2fps were much larger than P-Frames which also appeared a lot more frequently than I wished they would. Null B-Frames were 2.5x bigger than P and when there was movement, the P-Frames would take as much space (and sometimes even more) than I frames, so I had to do something about it to make it more efficient. Meanwhile Nick @Driftwood and @LPowell were kind enough to share their knowledge and let me in on a few tricks. These allowed me to suppress B-Frames altogether and starve P-Frames to death.

So here I was armed with a bazooka and a missile and I couldn't even fire a pistol. Then a few days ago @Balazer came out with his Cake patch featuring a completely VBR approach through a Constant Quantizer as if he couldn't care less about bitrates, limits or buffers or all the stuff that was putting me down. I tried it a 2fps and I couldn't believe how well it worked. And since the frame rate I'm using is ridiculous when compared to normal video modes, there are no speed/buffer/spanning issues even if you have the slowest SD card in the business. In this case, this VBR aproach is a no brainer and the cherry on top is that you get Constant Quality at Quantizer 22 which is very very good IQ!

So, hands to work, bake the Cake, mix Driftwood's MPEG settings, apply the P/B-Frame tricks and it was working on the third try. :O

It could have been a lot faster as I tried to best the 60i mode and leave all other modes alone. It ended up being the wrong choice because the 60i GOP isn't sticking and probably the Interlacing is making too big P-Frames around the I-Frames. In the end I managed to use tweak 24p for timelapses and the frame usage when there is no movement is a beautiful set of I-Frame spikes with all else almost null. 60i is now GOP13 on I/P frames exclusively and the P sizes look generous, so the starved P-Frames on 24p don't seem to affect it. 720p modes seem also unaffected. In the end this patch tries to give you the best 2fps and still leave you with 2 very workable modes without repatching: 1080i60 and 720p.

Thank you @cbrandin for StreamParser 2.4 which gave me wonderful new numbers.

.

VERSION HISTORY :

1 - TimeBuster 1 - First Release

Based on Cake v1. It uses GOP13, a Constant Quantizer VBR approach without B-Frames, minimum P-Frame size and quality.

2 - TimeBuster 1.1 - with 2 significant changes:

Now based on @balazer 's Cake 1.1, it has switched to use the Rate Control mechanism from @LPowell 's FlowMotion 100.

720p mode was broken due to use of a very low quantizer (12) which lead to skipped frames in 720p. It now uses QP=20 on both 720 & 1080 modes which will have an observable effect in both bitrate & quality even though it still gives you 24+ hours on 64GB.

Since @balazer 's Cake 1.1 is now heavily based on @LPowell 's FlowMotion 100, I decided to copy LPowells 720p settings since they will probably play better with the other modes. The only difference on 720p is a constant QP which had to be lowered yet from 20 to 21 because it still dropped frames on torture charts and/or sometimes present speed issues at very high ISO (>3200) on Class 10 SDs.

4 - TimeBuster 1.3 - with a lot of significant changes:

Ported to PTTools 3.64d

Savings on P-Frames is now accomplished by using a Scaling Table that is full of 0xFFFF for 1080p modes.

Quantizer boundaries were removed since they are now much more dependent on the new Quantizer Tables.

Redesigned for merging, these definitions try to be as independent as possible from their re-packaging definitions (in this case FlowMotion 1.1) and are published in two flavors: Timebuster 1.3 Base (for merging) and Timebuster 1.3 FloMo (merged with FlowMotion 1.1)

NOTE1: Timebuster Base 1.3 was merge tested with @LPowell 's FlowMotion 1.1, @Balazer 's Cake 1.2 and Nick @Driftwood 's Quantum X (v2) with minimal impact on all modes except for 1080p. I recommend FlowMotion or Cake for the simple reason that the 1080p24 Frame Limit is set to a much higher value in these settings. In fact, if you care for nothing other than the 24p timelapse IQ and don't mind impacting some of the other modes, you should set it to 10,000,000.

NOTE2: Merging Timebuster Base 1.3 with other settings is easiest done by loading Timebuster Base 1.3 first and then Alt+Clicking your choice of merger.

The GOP for 24p is now married to 2.5fps. The bitrate hit is a little above 20% but the recording length can be easily compensated by raising the QP. As a benefit it's still very close to 2fps and it's the closest to a 360º shutter we can get on 24p.

b) 24h TimeHBusteR 2.0 (NEW, uses HBR 30)

Similar philosophy to 24h Timebuster 2.0 Base but as the name suggests, uses HBR mode instead of 24p. There is another difference, P-Frame quality is fully preserved as this kind of frames is used for one of the interlaced slices on Key Frames.

GOP married to 1/2.5 on HBR 30p (NTSC) and to 1/5s on HBR 25p (PAL). The big benefit is that both are using a 360º shutter. Uncheck "1080i50 and 1080p24 GOP Size=5" before merging if you don't plan to use Shutter Speed (SS) =1/5s and want to better preserve the 24p mode and HBR 25.

Both variants are now:

Using B-Frames. There is a 6% penalty in bitrate usage but this was necessary to make sure the QP was respected. I believe the gain from setting the QP at will is just too great to ignore, since not everyone wants to record for 24h straight. QPs as low as QP=16 were tested and theoretically it could go as low as QP=12 @ISO160 when merged with FlowMotion 1.11 on regular tripod mounted footage.

GOP married to 2.5fps. The bitrate hit is a little above 20% but the recording length can be easily compensated by raising the QP. The reason behind this was getting as close as possible to 360º.

User definable GOP - GOP can be set at will according to intended SS, use the attached "GOP-SS-table.png" to look up the right value. Defaults settings are SS=2.5fps and GOP 1080i=10 for 24h Timebuster 2.0 and SS=2.5/5fps and GOP 1080i50/i60=12/5 for 24h TimeHBusteR 2.0.

User definable QP - QP can be set at will according to desired IQ/recording length. I've gathered quite an amount of information so that in the future I can make an Excel tool to estimate the best QP from Card Size/Footage Snapshot/Desired ISO/Recording Length. Default settings are Q24/23 for 24h Timebuster/TimeHBusteR.

As before, there is the Base Release to be merged at wish with popular settings (load Base first in PTTools and then "ALT+Click" your choice of merger) and there is also the FlowMotion Release (already merged with FlowMotion 1.11). I've merge tested against @lpowell 's FlowMotion 1.11, @balazer 's Cake 95, and @bkmcwd 's GOP3ZILLA and no undesirable effects were observed. The key is using a VBR settings definition with a very high "1080p24 Frame Limit", especially if you are going for a low QP (<22).

(edit) If you want to merge with Nick @driftwood 's settings, I recommend going for Cluster v1 as shines in being both a long GOP set and also having the biggest "1080p24 Frame Limit" of all the sets I know.

(EDIT) This turned out to be a rushed release. Several users have reported problems with timeHBusteR (the HBR variant) It looks like FlowMotion 2.0(+) is highly dependent on GOP length (trough heavy use of GOP Tables, GOP Opt Tables and GOPx2 parameters). I'm investigating other possibilities right now so watch this space for further news. In the meantime I recommend you stick to timeHBusteR /Timebuster v2.0.

7 - Updated Release of Timebuster/timeHBusteR 2.02 FlowMotion variants - 24p is now fixed on timeHBusteR.
There was a note telling you should remove the "1080i50 and 1080p24 GOP Size=5" for better preserving 24p but no one seemed to read it and it was causing more trouble (to most of those who wanted 24p preserved) than it was worth (for those who wanted more timelapsing versatility.

NOTE: The mergeable timeHBusteR wasn't updated! Just the the FlowMotion variant. I ASSUME that if you are using this base for merging that YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, and read the DOC.

The day is not over. :)

]]>GH2 NEW TOOL Katanahttp://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/15897/gh2-new-tool-katana
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:19:51 -0600frullaccia15897@/talks/discussionsWaiting for GH5, this is a new hack for GH2. Two versions. All Intra. 720 and 1080-60 have to be tested. This hack uses Pasadena Pulse Audio by Per Lichtman.
]]>